Archive for the ‘Owls Head Transportation Museum’ tag

Mid-Coast School of Technology students and teacher Dan Dishner look on as OHTM Ground Vehicle Conservator Warren Kincaid gives their restoration a run. Photo courtesy of Owls Head Transportation Museum.

Recognizing that we’re all only the custodians of the vehicles we collect, and that someday they’ll be in someone else’s care, Owls Head Transportation Museum Director Russ Rocknak announced at last Saturday’s Barnstormer’s Ball the museum’s intention to look into the possibility of establishing a school tasked with training the next generation of vehicle restorers.

“Education for the future generations,” Rocknak explains, “is paramount to preserving, sustaining and maintaining the historic automobiles that, as automobile enthusiasts, we all know and celebrate today.” The news came on the heels of the sale of a special 1914 Model T Ford express truck at OHTM’s Aug 16th auction.

Constructed by students and teachers from Region 8 Mid-Coast School of Technology and Owls Head volunteers led by OHTM Ground Vehicle Conservator Warren Kincaid, the Ford express truck served as a kind of proof-of-concept that resulted in its $14,500 sale and, more important, a dozen or so inspired young people who now have some new skills.

Rocknak believes that “…if we fail to incite a passion in the younger audience today, we lose the opportunity to pass our passion and knowledge on to the next generation, and with that, we lose the vital importance of these automobiles to both the history of transportation and civilization.”

And the Owls Head Transportation Museum, with its more than 150 automobiles, motorcycles, aircraft and engines—many of which are in pristine condition and regularly run as part of OHTM’s new directive to make them heard as well as seen—takes seriously its role in preserving and bringing the stories of these vehicles to life. It does this through its participation in special events both on- and offsite, as well as through its many static displays and exhibits like the current Faster: The Quest for Speed.

The OHTM’s 1932 Ford Cragar Racer roars by the crowd at one of the museum’s many opportunities for seeing its collection in action. Photo courtesy of Owls Head Transportation Museum.

In light of such an extensive and healthy collection of remarkable vehicles, Rocknak understands the museum is uniquely situated to potentially play an important role in their future preservation. “We at OHTM recognize that we are in the perfect position to marry the entities of a museum with the introduction of expanded education initiatives, including eventually a school.”

It’s early days yet for Owls Head’s dream of a vehicle restoration school becoming a reality. Though it is thought that the prospective school would be at the post-secondary level with some high-school crossover, the museum is still in the process of researching what would be required to make a successful vehicle restoration program.

As of yet, no timeline for the completion of a school exists, but by moving forward with progressively more ambitious projects like the Model T express truck restoration and by holding fundraising events, OHTM hopes to be ready when the time comes.

The Barnstormer’s Ball, during which the announcement was made, was the museum’s inaugural fundraising gala. A world-class, glamorous, roaring-Twenties-themed event, it was held amid the museum’s exceptional collection, which features “It Girl” Clara Bow’s Springfield-built 1929 Rolls Royce as one of its crown jewels. Many of the nearly 200 guests came attired in period dress, adding shake, shimmer and dash, and they were treated to delectable hors hors d’oeuvres, music, dancing and an auction.

Some snaps of the OHTM’s Barnstormer’s Ball. Photo courtesy of Owls Head Transportation Museum.

While most of the collector car world turns its attention to the mid-August auctions on California’s Monterey Peninsula, not every buyer is in the market for a $30 million Ferrari or a $2 million Shelby Cobra. For those of more modest means, Maine’s Owls Head Transportation Museum is presenting its 37th Annual New England Auto Auction, which serves as both the facility’s primary fundraiser and as an opportunity for collectors of all budgets and interests to add to their collections.

1948 Chrysler Town & Country convertible.

Last year’s sale, for example, served up everything from a $300 1974 Mercury Comet (which, as David LaChance pointed out in the November 2013 issue of Hemmings Motor News, was “likely parts-car rusty”) to a $104,000 1960 Jaguar XK150 DHC, rated as condition 1 and described as “meticulously restored.” Though the current catalog seems to omit cars in the sub-$500 range (thanks to the museum’s efforts to raise the quality of cars offered for 2014), every decade from the 1900s through the 2000s is represented in the 110 lots consigned so far. Of these, 24 are listed as “No Reserve,” meaning that they’ll sell for the highest bid, regardless of what that number may be.

Outside these general groups, the sale also includes everything from brass era cars to trucks, ensuring that collectors of all interests have something to capture their attention (and their bids). Lots offered generally come from consignors (and not necessarily the museum’s own collection), and the 10-percent fee paid by buyers goes directly to support the museum’s operation. In other words, it’s a win for the sellers, who enjoy a population of enthusiastic bidders; a win for the buyers, who have a surprisingly diverse number of vehicles to bid on; and a win for the Owls Head Transportation Museum, which has found a particularly creative way to raise money while supporting the collector car hobby.

The 37th Annual New England Auto Auction will take place on Saturday, August 16, on the grounds of the Owls Head Transportation Museum in Owls Head, Maine. For additional details, visit OwlsHead.org.

What inspires a person to push beyond the limits of the human body in a never-ending quest to go faster than anyone else? How has this drive to be the fastest evolved over the years, and how has mankind developed mechanical conveyances to test the human body’s mental and physical limitations? These questions lie at the heart of a new exhibit opening today at the Owls Head Transportation Museum in Owls Head, Maine, Faster: The Quest for Speed.

Per the museum’s executive director, Russ Rocknak, the exhibit was inspired by his own personal quest for speed, which began with a downhill trip in a homemade soap box racer and progressed through minibikes, bicycles and race cars. The question of why mankind has had this passion for ever-increasing velocity lies at the heart of the exhibit, which Rocknak calls a “social and mechanical study of how man has launched himself across the earth.”

As Rocknak points out, the social aspect of racing played a large role in the sport’s early growth. Driving automobiles that were, in Rocknak’s words, “little more than a barstool on a buckboard, with an engine,” early racers achieved astonishing speeds, at great risk of injury or death to themselves and the thrilled spectators gathered around the track. Speed contests crossed social barriers, attracting both socialites and commoners to see these bold displays of man (or woman) and machine.

Before there were automobiles there were bicycles, and Faster: The Quest for Speed promises to show everything from human-powered two-wheelers through Michael Schumacher’s 2002 Ferrari Formula One car. Some of the vehicles planned for the exhibit’s opening include a 1915 Duesenberg Double Drop Frame Racing Car (known as the Benedict Special), said to be the oldest surviving Duesenberg racer and one of five team cars constructed between 1913 and 1915; a 1914 Mercer Type 35J Raceabout; a 1907 Renault Vanderbilt Cup Racer; a 1940 Wetteroth Offy 220 “Big Car”; a 1939 Koopman Offy Oval Track Racer; a 1934 Riley Four-Port Ford Sprint Car; a 1954 Hudson Hornet, known to NASCAR fans as “The Fabulous Hudson Hornet;” and a 2002 Ferrari F2002 Formula 1 car, previously driven by Michael Schumacher.

Fans of speed on two wheels won’t be disappointed, as the opening displays will include a 1929 J.A.P.-engined racer; a 1960 Indian modified for hill climb competition; a 1975 Yamaha RD 350 road race and a 1991 Yamaha TZR racer replica.

Faster: The Quest for Speed opens June 12, and is planned to run for the next three years. To keep the subject matter fresh, the museum will rotate in new displays on a regular and ongoing basis, meaning the exhibit will evolve in multiple phases over the next 37 months. For additional information, visit OwlsHead.org or the museum’s dedicated exhibit Facebook page.

The Owls Head Transportation Museum’s annual New England Auto Auction shares a weekend with the Monterey auctions, but that’s about where the similarities end. The Owls Head auction tends to focus on cars that are affordable to people of average means, and have that “something for everyone” quality that encourages spectators to become participants. Another key difference: The proceeds generated by the auction support the museum’s operating budget, making this their largest fundraiser of the year. The auction took place on August 17 on the museum grounds, with previews held throughout the preceding week.

The top sale among the 190 lots was the 1960 Jaguar XK150 3.8-liter Drop Head Coupe, above, which sold for $104,000. A recent restoration, this car was in #1 condition, with perfect paintwork, chrome and leather. I got on my hands and knees to look, and the underside was as nicely finished as the topside. Its only drawback – which is not a drawback to some – was its automatic transmission. The result was a moderately good deal for the buyer; the 3.8-liter engine adds 25 percent to the value, though the automatic takes away 10 percent.

On the opposite end of the scale was this 1975 Mercury Comet. The final vehicle to cross the block that day, it sold for just $300. Topside, it was a mostly original and complete #4+ car, with faded and crazed paint, some rust in the lower front fenders. Underneath, it was very rusty - possibly parts-car rusty. And that wasn’t its only drawback.

You should thank your lucky stars that you can’t smell this interior – the stench of mouse urine on this warm August day was nearly overpowering. Whichever volunteer who drew the short straw and had to drive this across the block gets our full sympathy. Note J.C. Whitney’s finest one-size-fits-all cover on the front bench seat. It also had an AM radio with an FM converter – remember those? Just 50,010 miles showed on the odometer. Under the hood was a 75hp 200-cu.in. straight-six.

Here’s a car I fell for: a 1947 Cadillac Series 62. This Full Classic was mostly original, except for a repaint in the original Antoinette Blue, probably sometime in the 1950s, according to the seller. Places where the paint had worn through had been touched up, the carpets were faded, the painted woodgrain on the door caps was crazed and there was minor glass delamination – all things that you’d expect with an unrestored, largely preserved car. We thought the big Caddy had mellowed beautifully, and we wouldn’t change a thing. Here’s a nice plus: The car came with a one-year membership in the Classic Car Club of America. It sold for $14,000, a bit below book value.

We’ll have more thorough coverage of the auction in upcoming issues of Hemmings Motor News and Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car. Watch for announcements about next year’s auction, and check out the museum’s calendar of events, at OHTM.org.

A gathering of some of coolest-looking vintage commercial trucks we’ve seen took place July 21-22 on the Maine coast. This was the annual meet of the Pine Tree Chapter of the American Truck Historical Society and the Maine Antique Tractor Club that is held at the wonderful Owls Head Transportation Museum in Owls Head, Maine, about an hour north of Portland.

Several hundred vintage commercial trucks, pickups, tractors and a few rarely seen pre-war truck-based vehicles wowed the sizable crowd throughout the two-day truck fest. Perhaps the rarest was this 1916 Concord that was built by the Abbott & Downing company of Concord, New Hampshire, builders of the famous Concord wagons and Overland (Wells Fargo) stage coaches. Plans are in the works to restore it.

This finely restored, bright yellow vintage school bus was the hit of the show, for all who got a chance to inspect it up close. Based on a 1936 Ford 1-1/2-ton truck chassis, and powered by an 85hp Ford flathead V-8 backed by a four-speed manual transmission, it’s owned and restored by the Mahan Foundation, based in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. The body was built by the Wayne School Bus Body Co. of Richmond, Indiana, which produced the first all-steel bus body back in 1927.

One of the other rare vehicles at the show was this very interesting 1910 Buick stakebed delivery truck originally from Madison, Maine. Power is by Buick’s two-cylinder, horizontally opposed engine, which develops 22hp, and features a planetary transmission with double chain drive. Alongside sat a 1909 Chase Model D truck that was originally bought for use at a hardware store in nearby York Village, Maine. Power is derived from a three-cylinder, two-cycle, air-cooled engine that made just 15hp and drives the rear wheels via a chain-driven two-speed planetary transmission.

And no show is complete without at least one Model A Ford in attendance, such as the very rare U.S. Mail Truck based on a 1931 Model A at the top of this post. It was perfectly restored to original specifications, complete with mail bags piled up in the back.

For more details about the remaining 2012 shows to be held at the Owls Head Museum, as well as next year’s schedule for this fascinating vintage truck, tractor and airplane show, visit OHTM.org.

The Owls Head Transportation Museum’s annual auction generally focuses on the affordable end of the collector car market – it’s “Gravel Beach, not Pebble Beach,” as the executive director, Charles Chiarchiaro once put it – but there are exceptions. This year, one of those exceptions will be a 1953 Arnolt-MG coupe, one of just 65 constructed during the brief collaboration between the Abingdon factory and Stanley Harold “Wacky” Arnolt.

The story of how the Arnolt-MG came to be goes like this: Arnolt, the Midwest distributor for MG, Riley and Morris, was at the 1952 Turin auto show, where he saw a roadster and a coupe designed by Bertone and constructed on the chassis of an MG TD. Arnolt ordered 100 of each on the spot, and began marketing them as “the Continental sports car for the entire family.” The coupe listed for $2,995 and the roadster for $3,145, with wire wheels a $195 option.

The TD’s 1,250cc inline-four was standard equipment, though the 1,466cc four from the TF was listed as an option in at least one brochure. The Arnolts shared their underpinnings with the TD, and their bodies, made of aluminum and steel, were commendably light – in fact, the coupe outweighed the stock TD roadster by a mere 40 pounds.

Arnolt’s arrangement with MG came to an abrupt end, apparently because the factory could not spare the chassis and engine units – and, too, was preparing to put the TF into production. An even 100 Arnolt-MGs were built in all, including 35 roadsters and 65 coupes. “Wacky” Arnolt then moved on to build the better-known Arnolt-Bristol.

The Owls Head car is being offered with an undisclosed reserve. According to the Hagerty’s Cars That Matter price guide, an Arnolt-MG coupe in excellent condition is worth somewhere around $40,000. One sold at a 2007 Bonhams auction in London for $48,000.

The 33rd Annual New England Auto Auction takes place on August 21, with a preview the day before. The museum itself conducts the auction, and proceeds go to help fund its operations. More than 200 domestic and foreign vehicles are expected to be offered for sale.

Here’s a suggestion: Take the family for a little fall foliage viewing on Maine’s spectacular coast this Columbus Day weekend. And, while you’re there, drop in at the Owls Head Transportation Museum for their annual Foreign Auto Festival and Antique Aeroplane Show, scheduled for Sunday, October 12.

Each year, the museum opens its grounds for foreign cars of all kinds, with Austin-Healey, M.G., Triumph, Porsche, Ferrari, CitroÃ«n, Mercedes, BMW, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, Volkswagen and other marques well represented. Owners of pre-1988 cars, trucks and motorcycles are invited to exhibit their vehicles free of charge. This year, the featured marque will be Porsche, with vehicles of all years welcome.

The Museum will be demonstrating a few of its turn-of-the-century automobiles, and will be giving rides in Ford Model Ts, celebrating that car’s centennial. The museum’s World War I-era aircraft, including its Nieuport 28C.1, SPAD XIII and the Royal Aircraft Factory FE8, will take to the skies, and the museum will auction off rides aboard its 1941 Stearman and 1933 Waco biplanes. What does that have to do with sports cars? Nothing, but it promises to be good fun.

The festival opens at 9:30 a.m. Admission is $12 for adults, $6 for children ages 5 to 17, and $30 for a family with two adults and two children. Museum members and children under 5 will be admitted free of charge. Exhibitor gates open at 8:30 a.m. For more information, visit the museum’s Web site.

(This post originally appeared in the October 2, 2008, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)

The Winter Transportation Festival returns for a second year to the Owls Head Transportation Museum on February 10. “If it goes in the snow, it belongs in this show!” is the motto. All pre-1987 snowmobiles, snow plow vehicles, snow blowers, sleighs, toboggans, sleds and ice boats are welcome. Organizers are expecting hundreds of exhibits.

The festival runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the museum, which is located about two miles south of Rockland, Maine. According to event organizer Cathy Hardy, the Maine Snowmobile Association will be celebrating its 40th anniversary with a big raffle, and four vintage snowmobile experts will be displaying and talking about their collections: Wayne Campbell of the Northern Timber Cruisers Snowmobile Museum in Millinocket, Jay Carsley of Cove-Side Wheel & Ski of Newport and Vintage Snowmobiling Online; Jonny Wakefield of the Antique & Vintage Snowmobile Gallery in Turner; and Andrew Avelis of Newbury, Mssachusetts, and Rangeley, Maine, with his collection of vintage Arctic Cat snowmobiles.

With the Model T Ford Snowmobile Club coming to Lake George, New York, for its national convention the same weekend, vintage snowmobile fans in the Northeast will be spoiled for choice.

It’s not just the 3,378 miles that separates the auction at the Owls Head Transportation Museum from its tonier counterparts that take place on the same weekend in Monterey, California. That was a point not lost on the hundreds of bidders and spectators shivering in the aircraft hangar where the auction was held. Auctioneer Charles Chiarchiaro, who is also the museum’s director, got an earful of the chattering teeth and had volunteers bring sweatshirts from the museum store out to the hangar, where they were sold at cost. The museum may not have made any money on that deal, but they certainly made some friends.

What a difference a day makes, though. The crowds at Friday’s preview enjoyed the sunny skies and mid-70s temperatures that had been forecast for the weekend. The Owls Head auction always draws a great variety of cars, and this year was no exception, with everything from Model T Fords to a late-model Bentley among the consignments.

This charming oddball is a 1948 Playboy, one of the 97 built in Buffalo, New York. Formerly part of the museum’s collection, the steel-roofed convertible brought $22,500.

Another member of the orphaned minicar brigade was this 1947 Crosley, which brought $8,000.

The top sale of the auction was this 1933 Packard, which sold for $120,000. Owls Head is somewhat unusual among auctions, in that buyers pay no premiums on top of the selling price. Sellers fees help support the museum’s operations.

Among the unsold cars was this 1963 Corvette split-window coupe. The high bid of $46,000 failed to make the reserve. Watch for a full report on the auction in an upcoming issue of Hemmings Motor News.

* Why in the world did Coca-Cola build a Volkswagen-based Star Wars-style landspeeder in the vein of Luke Skywalker’s womprat-shooting sled? How in the world did it end up in an impound lot in Florida? Autoblog has at least some of the answers you’re looking for (but perhaps none of the droids you’re looking for). Considering Lucas was highly influenced by the hot rods of the 1950s and even explicitly stated once that Skywalker’s landspeeder was an extraterrestrial hot rod, I’d say this is relevant here.

* So during a standard land lease review for Russo and Steele following what could have been an accidental use of additional adjacent land during this year’s Scottsdale auction, Drew Alcazar’s former employer, Barrett-Jackson, submitted a competing claim to the 12-acre parcel of land, ostensibly to park semi trailers on during B-J’s January auctions. Russo and Steele spokesfolk are crying foul, though, and say that B-J’s looking to push R-S out of business.

* Far removed from the hotbed of Scottsdale, the renowned Owls Head Transportation Museum in Owls Head, Maine, will conduct an auction of their own of a wide range of automobilia, including some killer neon and porcelain signs that I wouldn’t mind having to hang in my garage.

* And while it’s on the topic more of new cars, the 24 Hours of LeMans is something every car guy should experience, along with Bonneville, Woodward and Monterey. I’ve pulled down two out of four so far, but don’t think I’ll be able to pull LeMans anytime soon. Fortunately, Sandy Divelec will provide up-to-the-minute coverage of the race this year on her blog, following mostly the Luc Alphand Adventures team and its C6-R Corvette.